Camp YouTent

Water Damage

"Goooooood morning, campers! Let me remind you that once you have finished your breakfast, please throw away your scraps and do not leave your plates on the table. Your mom isn't here to pick it up! Unless you've got something to tell me?" Link said, slowly turning to Rhett, eyes squinted in suspicion. His joke, however, was missed by the campers who were starting their day with loud conversations.

"I'm telling you, dude. 100 mice sized dinosaurs would be an easy win! Like, you could just step on them. Do you seriously think you could beat the mice? Even if you killed them you'd still get, like, the plague or something!"

Drew knew that asking "what would you rather fight, 10 dino-sized mice or 100 mouse sized dinos" would start a debate that would be taken way too seriously, but he more expected the intensity to come from Kurtis, not Danny. And yet, there Danny was flailing his arms around, his face red with passion, as he tried to convince Kurtis he was a crazy idiot for choosing the mice.

"Well what kind of dinosaurs are we talking about? Like a T-Rex? Or some little one that, like, lives in trees and eats bugs? Because that's a huge difference," Kurtis said. "Did you not just hear what I said? It doesn't matter what size they are. They're disease ridden vermin, Kurtis. Dinosaurs don't carry the plague," Danny retorted.

"Yea, whatever, only idiot losers hate mice. They get a bad rap when it was really fleas who spread the black plague, dummy," Kurtis shot back.

"Of course you'd defend rats, dude! You have the rattiest mustache on the freaking planet," Danny said back, causing both him and Kurtis to laugh.

"Hey, man. That wasn't really wasn't cool. His mustache isn't that bad and you shouldn't comment on people's appearances like that," Nick said to Danny, agitation clearly on his face. Danny's cheeks flushed a bright red and he turned to Kurtis. "Oh- uhh. I'm sorry, Kurtis. I didn't-'' Kurtis interrupted him to say "No, dude. It's totally fine." He then turned to Nick. "Hey, man. I appreciate you defending but we were just joking around. We make fun of eachother all the time. I mean I did just call him an idiot loser, haha."

Huh, Drew thought. He felt a little uncomfortable by the sudden tonal turn the conversation took. But then again, Nick hadn't met him or Danny before so it was understandable that he didn't understand the group dynamic. Besides, he wasn't the first person to mistake the group's humor as malice, or even bullying.

"Okay, but the real question is," Drew said after a brief lull, eager to cut the unexpected tension, "would you rather fight a baby sized dinosaur or 10 dinosaur-"

They were interrupted by Scott who, looking a little frazzled, stopped at the edge of their table and asked, "Do you guys mind if I sit here? I woke up a little late and it looks like all the other tables are full." "No, not at all," Kurtis said. "Thanks. I didn't want to intrude or anything," Scott said, sitting down and shoveling food into his mouth. "Hey, after sitting through that ghost story last night, you earned your place here," Danny said.

"What ghost story?" Nick asked. Drew glanced up from his cereal at him to see if his face matched his pointed tone and if he hadn't been looking for it he may have missed the slight crease of his eyebrows. Drew looked at his friends to see if they'd noticed the shift in Nick's voice, but when Danny casually said, "Oh we just read one of the stories out of that book Kurtis brought," Drew decided to stay quiet.

"What was it about?" Nick asked. "Just some ghost that killed people. Nothing special," Scott said, pushing a biscuit into his mouth. Drew's eyes flicked between each person as they spoke, tracing the emotion on their faces. Despite Nick being directly across from Scott, Drew noticed he barely looked at Scott as he talked. "Was it good?" Nick asked, facing Kurtis and Danny. "Well-" Kurtis started to say.